 Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Merry Christmas and happiness, good health, love and many publications in the New Year 2026! from Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology
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On November 6, 2025, the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences held an Open Day, in which our Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology also took part. We prepared a program focused on the topic: How plants defend themselves against herbivores.
We are seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate with a background in bioinformatics to join our research team investigating the global drivers of phytochemical diversity. This project aims to uncover how the remarkable diversity of plant metabolites relates to biotic and abiotic stress across the globe. As a model system, we focus on the Salicaceae family, which provides an exceptional opportunity to study phytochemical evolution thanks to its broad geographic distribution, ecological diversity, and well-characterized phylogeny.
We are delighted to congratulate Jing Vir Leong on the successful defence of their doctoral thesis titled “Herbivore-plant interactions, evolution of defenses and chemical diversity in Salicaceae.”
Natural hybrids of Salix alba × fragilis are widespread along the Elbe River in Czechia, yet the ecological and chemical factors behind their success remain poorly understood. In our newly published study, we explore whether hybridization influences the diversity of specialized metabolites—and how this, in turn, affects herbivory and environmental adaptability.
Postdoctoral Position in Plant Chemical Ecology
We are inviting applications for a postdoctoral researcher to join our project exploring the drivers and functional roles of phytochemical diversity in plants. Project Overview Our research investigates the remarkable diversity of plant metabolites and their correlations with biotic and abiotic stressors at a global scale. To test our hypotheses, we focus on the Salicaceae family that represents a unique model system, being globally distributed in diverse environments. The project combines field observations with advanced metabolomics techniques. The successful candidate will enhance these efforts through laboratory-based experiments to test the functional roles of phytochemical diversity in plant defence. A key part of this work involves conducting feeding experiments with model herbivores to determine how different facets of chemical diversity influence insect behaviour and performance. Morgane Cottel has joined our lab as a new PhD student. She will be working on plant chemical defences and their roles in multitrophic interactions along ecological gradients. Using tropical and temperate species from the willow family, she will focus on the importance of plant volatile compounds in attracting the predators of insect herbivores depending on the type of environment.
We are delighted to congratulate Priscila Mezzomo on the successful defence of her doctoral thesis titled “Induced Plant Defences, Their Specificity, and Roles in Plant Protection.”
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New PublicationsMarinček P., Leong J.V., Pittet L., Léveillé-Bourret È., Nyma T., Tomoshevich M., Banaev E., He L. , Hörandl E., Volf M., Wagner N.D., (2025) Spatio-temporal evolution of shrub willows (Salix subgenus Vetrix clade) on a global scale, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 108480, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2025.108480
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